HeadSted

This was the first time I used a design contest site and the experience was very good. We received many great designs and ended up with one that matched our vision very well. I appreciated the opportunity to extend the contest, it gave us a chance to think over the various designs and then ask for new versions for the ones we liked best.
The contest site was also easy and nice to use. The only hindrance was that the rules of the contest were a bit difficult to find in one place. For example, I wasn't sure at first what would happen if I eliminated an entry from the contest.

Project description

UPDATE #3: We extended the contest and we would love to see some tweaks to the best designs so far!
UPDATE #2: Many thanks to all who've submitted designs! We'll have a hard time deciding which one is the best. We'll take a couple of days to scout our partners' and customers' opinions but we'll do our best to announce the winner as soon as possible. Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions. Thanks again!
UPDATE: We've been thinking about our name and came to a conclusion that we don't want to emphasize the difference between the two words "Head" and "Sted". In fact, we might change the "Headsted". For new designs, it would be nice to see both forms of the text (that is, "HeadSted" and "Headsted") so we can compare them. Thanks for your efforts, lots of nice designs already!
HeadSted is a small startup company based in Finland but with a global audience. Our mission is to help people who feel anxious, restless, nervous or otherwise unwell in their heads. The logo should somehow reflect that: it can communicate ideas such as finding one’s inner strength, overcoming shyness, connecting with others or minding your head. It can also radiate positivity, energy or support. Our vision is to use this logo (or some variation) on all things: website, t-shirts, business cards, towels, etched in marble at our HQ, on our company zeppelin, whatever ;)
The logo can also involve a mascot (such as a humanoid or a furry animal) that we could use on our website and online courses. We have some fuzzy ideas about the mascot: it could be something like a small elf, a tarsier, or some other cute and perhaps slightly nervous creature (use your imagination!). We would want to use it in different places and contexts to make the look livelier and more personal. For example, the mascot could be hiding behind a pile of books when we present stuff about presentation anxiety; it could creep around hugging the walls when we talk about social anxiety; or it could look happy and relieved, standing out in the open, when we succeed in overcoming anxiety! If you can incorporate such a mascot into the logo design, all the better.
You can find more details at our website http://headsted.com. Note that the website is at a very early stage and looks a bit too serious at this point, so don't use it as a guideline for the logo appearance :) Any colors are fine as long as they communicate the message.

I'm glad you like it, and #9 is an updated version: I've changed the font and layout in different color contrasts, also proposing a variant in #10 with an alternative, alliterative slogan ("mend your mind").

Good work! Both variants look quite nice. I commented on #9 about the tarsier's expression, we talked with the team and started thinking that maybe it should have a little bit of nervousness somewhere there as well. Also, I like how "mend your mind" rolls from the tongue, but it seems to imply that there's something broken that needs to be mended in your mind. I don't feel that it's really that way, at least not among our audience - the message is rather that we can strengthen and take good care of our minds and heads, but there's nothing really wrong or broken in us.

The hover effect on the white background is good. The bird is nice-looking but quite academic. Although our background is in research, we don't want to look and sound like professors. Maybe "loosen the tie" a bit ;)

The pink color is a bit too much when it's used as the only color, although the hue you used is pretty good for pink (it's not too bright). The creature is fun and plays well with our idea that "everyone is a little weird" ;) However, I think in its current form it would be more suitable for something oriented towards children. I like the way the creature peeks over the HeadSted text. Maybe you could try something similar with different colors and give the creature two eyes instead of one?

The light bulb idea is too common in mental well-being or self-improvement services, we're looking for something more original and personal. Also, at the first glance I thought the light bulb is a scythe :) Otherwise, the design is clear and well-done but maybe slightly too simplistic for us.

The bunny's expression looks great! However, the arrangement of the picture and the text is a bit too traditional. Could the bunny "interact" with the text somehow? Also, the colors feel a bit too subdued although they work well together.

Hello, glad you like it! I kept the bunny away from the text as if I am not mistaken, you want to have the mascot in your site doing things so I thought I should keep it seperate on the logo. I can have it interact of course. Now the colors were selected to match your site. Please see #14. Would you like me to use more vibrant colors? Thank you in advance!

Yes, it would be great if the mascot does a lot of stuff on the website, and it's good that we have seen the entire bunny now :) But I think it probably looks nicer and livelier in the logo if it does something that's related to our mission. As for the colors, note that the website is also in need of a redesign, as I mentioned in the brief. We've been thinking that we can also modify the look of the website once we find the ideal logo. Sorry if this hasn't been clear enough in the design brief!

Great I understand! #16 is a revision. Please let me know what you think. I would also like to point out that I have kept the bunny clean and flat so if you need to have an illustrator remake him in different poses, that could be done easily. Thank you in advance.

Thanks, nice work again! Hm, I think the grey bunny might be better than the orange one, and we probably don't want to have books in the logo :) But the book-reading bunny could work well somewhere on the website. Need to think about this a bit more, the colors are not perfect yet but they're easy to adjust.

Looks very good, thank you! The placement of the bunny is quite close to the idea I had. I talked with our team this morning about the style of the logo and the mascot, and we're currently trying to decide the cuteness level we're looking for. Some people had the feeling that the bunny may be "too cute" to cater for a wide audience, especially for men. It's a wonderful mascot and a great design but we might have to choose something a bit different after all. We'll test with some outsiders and let's see what the verdict is. We've had some ideas to develop something for children in the future, so this could be great for them, though.

Hello there, Here are my first entries. I drew a character for you, let's call him Edsted HeadSted... #24 #25 #26 #27. In #24 he is slightly terrified. In #26 we have a thumbs up from Edsted, and in #27 he is cautiously peeping out from behind his pile of self help books!
Kind regards,
Liz

I like your style! It's simple, yet very expressive. Thanks for these different designs, it gives a good impression of the variety of ways Ed could be featured! We'll definitely consider him, the text also looks nice.

Thanks! It's a good idea to join the fox to the text and nice in its simplicity. However, the way that the fox holds its paw over its face makes me feel it's ashamed of something and also that it just wants to hide. Our audience might feel that way, but we want to help them overcome their fears so it would be better to have something that shows strength and daring in addition to the slight fear. I know, easier said than done!

The font is a lot better now, and it's nice that you illustrated how the logo would look on different backgrounds and in black-and-white!
We talked about the tarsier and started wondering if it's maybe even too content-looking. I wonder if it would be possible to make it look a little bit nervous but still happy?

Good improvements! The colors are better than in #3 and two eyes look better than one :) Could you try "lowering" the creature so that half of its head is hidden beind the text, and perhaps change its hands so that they grip the text a bit, like you did with the pile of books in #6?

I especially like how the creature's hands look when it peeks from behind the books. But the pile of books is way too big and books might not be what we want in the logo (we read too much of them already :)). Maybe you could combine elements from this with the design in #7?

The colors are nice, but the koala bear doesn't feel right at all. Maybe you could try to do some kind of an effect instead of a creature? Although we'd love to have a nice mascot, the logo doesn't necessarily have to have one.

We extended the contest and since your owl is one of the designs we really liked, could I ask you to try some tweaks in it? I wrote earlier that the owl might not be the best choice and the feedback we got others also indicated that it reminds people of educational software. But it wouldn't have to be changed much to give it a different feeling, perhaps just change its beak into some kind of a small nose and give it a mouth to communicate different feelings :) Also, if this would make it into an imaginary creature, then it could also have a tail that goes under the text or weaves through it. Just some ideas if you're willing to try!

Hi! Thanks so much for the in depth feedback and suggestions! I really appreciate it! I made an attempt to redesign the owl's mouth/beak to be more expressive (please refer to #94 ), and while it's certainly a step up from before, I'm not so sure I feel satisfied with the result.. I don't know what's making me scratch my head over it, but something still doesn't feel right to me. Of course, I could just be over-thinking it.. lol~ That being said, I took another whack at the tarsier idea (or something similar, anyway) and came up with #93 . I hope you like him! :)
Keep in mind that just like the owl, it's not a done deal, and I can play around with or make specific adjustments as you see fit. Consider it a rough draft for the time being, and let me know what you think! Thanks! :)

Thanks very much for the work you've done! The owl in #94 is definitely better than the previous one but as you said, something doesn't feel totally right. I also like the expressiveness of the tarsier in #100 but he feels kind of "sketchy" and so does the font. But I love how you've come up with different expressions (both on the face and with the tail!) and using the mascot like that is definitely something we'd like to do in the future. For the logo, however, we liked the owl style better.
My colleague said about #94: keep the font, keep the size, keep the eyes, lose the beak! That is, replace the beak with nose and mouth, and keep the general shape and size of the animal. Maybe taking the mouth and nose from the tarsier could work? :)
I'm glad you're having fun with this!

#104
I tried to refine the tarsier a little so he looks less sketchy. I gave him colored paws, bigger pupils w/ an outline for more depth, and his tail now has a few bright rings on the tip. Let me know if you think he's going in the right direction. :)

Hi there, I have entered #57, and #59 which is our same old 'Ed' but I have thickened up his lines and made him more acceptable as a logo, rather than a sketch, he still has his white knuckles as he clings on. However, he can still be animated and hide behind his books, or put on a happy smile! Kind regards, Liz (I also tried him in a nice calming green but that can be changed)

This looks great, our whole team likes it! It's simple and clear and works surprisingly well that way. The small version is also readable and the expression is still easy to recognize. If you still want to make some tweaks, maybe changing the colors into some other combination and changing the font a little bit could be worth trying. The colors and the font work very well already, though.